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'I am confident they play cricket in Heaven. Wouldn't be Heaven otherwise, would it?'

This is the catch-all for cricket discussion.

I'm pretty sure there's far less of us keeping track of what happens in the square than in the NFL, so we'll quietly stake out some space here in cow corner.

Might not be the best time to start a cricket thread, after England collapsed for 51 in the second innings in Kingston, but its the start of their Windies tour, so alot can change in the next couple weeks. With the English summer only a few months away and our team undergoing a crisis of confidence, I know there are some Aussies on the board who can feel the rumble of the approaching Ashes. I've got a soft spot for the Kiwis and the Saffers, as the best side in the world at the moment, are fantastic to watch. So there's lots to talk about.

Our nets started a couple weeks ago and I've played a couple times in an indoor league on Sunday nights. Its felt good to actually face a few balls and start to get things clicking again for the season.

Who do you support? Who do you rate with the ball? The bat? Are you playing anywhere? Where have you played previously?

Alaistair Cooke wrote:

But after all, its not the winning that matters, is it? Or is it? Its - to coin a word - the amenities that count: the smell of the dandelions, the puff of the pipe, the click of the bat, the rain on the neck, the chill down the spine, the slow, exquisite coming of sunset and dinner and rheumatism.

We have bred a generation of flat track bullies and this is the end result. I want Clarke pilloried when he gets back. Just chuck him in the stocks outside the airport so we can express our displeasure.

To have the gall to say at the press conference "Live by the sword, die by the sword" when back in December as you spoke over your friend's coffin the requirement was "we must dig in and get through to tea." You should be ashamed of yourself.

I did laugh the other day at all the cricket pundits (Michael Vaughan in particular, who is always the quickest to have a moan and open his mouth) saying that the bad light which ended in a draw for England V Pakistan is bad for test cricket, almost oblivious to the fact that there is a lot of anger at the moment over how the cricket boards of England, Australia and India are killing test cricket.

Other than Steyn, who is actually absent from this "no 1 in the Test rankings" side ? I know they've had a significant number of top quality players retire recently, but is this it ?

Oh, and this just in from the 'Dept. of Stating the Obvious'....Amla is nowhere near a Test captain, despite his undoubted skill with the bat. I'm getting a real David Gower vibe from him, just not involved enough.

We haven't recovered from the loss of Smith and Kallis, and the captaincy has impacted Amla's form for pretty much no gain, those three along with AB have long shored up and covered for an otherwise fragile middle order. Without Steyn we also don't have much in the way of consistent effective attack.

Even when Smith was struggling he was an effective opener who could stick around to take the shine off the ball and so far we haven't replaced that.

I guess we had a good 9 year run and that can't carry on forever. Hopefully we can bounce back within a year or so, just need to find suitable talent and guys with a bit of mongrel.

That's more like it. teams have ups and downs, but at least they are showing some grit. It's the one thing you can usually really expect from a South African team and it's something they've been lacking. Hopefully the bowlers can show some fight now, even if the game isn't winnable.

Would have been nice if Sri Lanka could actually play as though they could be bothered.

Some good fielding, but the bowling has been indifferent and the batting little short of a disgrace.

I was there today, although their fielding looked good on day 1, their fielding on the Saturday was abysmal, so much so the wicket keeper got subbed off, can only presume it was out of embarrassment for the clanger he dropped, which seemed an easy catch. Hope this Sri Lanka test team doesn't go the way of the West Indies, they barely look like a team that deserves test status.

Sad news, as Michael Carberry has been diagnosed with cancer a shame he only played 6 tests for England, was just unlucky that they came in a whitewash Ashes series, he actually did a lot better than all of the England openers with Cook after him, I believe.

I was slightly underwhelmed by this Ashes series coming into it, but after that first test it’s really got that excitement back. It’s good to see the day night test this weekend too, hopefully even more adjustments are made to test crickets to make them more appealing.

I can almost definitely see English batsmen crumbling the minute the floodlights come on though!